Arizona

Our next stop was in Tucson.  We stayed there overnight.  We tried to find a McDonalds with a playland on Tuesday night, but no luck, so we went home and went to sleep and I went to Starbucks to work the next morning.  I didn't end up taking any pictures and only got one of us on our way out (and the one of Judah being crabby in the morning).  We were headed to Camp Verde as a stop over on our way to the Grand Canyon. 

 

On the way there, we stopped at t rest stop.  It was beautiful!  I though it would be a perfect backdrop for a nice picture of the kids.  this is what we ended up with...

 They did have fun, though, and were able to stretch their little legs.

Oh, no!  Judah!

Sawyer to the rescue.

 When we got to Camp Verde, I made dinner.  It ended up being an homage to the colors of the southwest.  How fitting...

After dinner, the kids practiced for trick or treating.

And I updated the blog.

Creepy, right?

Then the kids did some work.

Let me preface this next part by saying how much I love my babies.  I adore them.  I want more of them.  I wouldn't trade my life with them for anything.  That being said, I miss sleep.  My kids aren't big fans of sleep.  This trip has only accentuated that.  There is always something much more exciting to be doing than sleeping.  At night, for Beans, that is nursing.  Saywer wakes up eight, ten, fifteen times a night to nurse.  Lots of times I don't even notice.  Sometimes I do.  Sometimes I get pissed and say "this is ridiculous, why are we even in bed, it's not like anyone is sleeping" and then I make a big deal of traipsing him out onto the couch bed and not sleeping.  We are usually then both back to sleep within minutes.  What gets me through these nights of insanity is remembering that soon he won't want me to snuggle him close and kiss his head as I listen to his breathing shift to sleep, so I better take advantage of it now, even if it happens waaaaaaaayyyyyy more than I wish it would.   

The next morning, after I took the obligatory shot of our spot, we headed to Montezuma's castle, which happened to be right down the road. 

It was a national park at which you could view this home built into the rocks by farmers thousands of years ago.  It was pretty cool.

There were a bunch of school groups there.  Judah took a particular liking to one group of boys who were climbing trees and rocks--imagine that.  When their group leader went to take their picture, Judah insisted on being in it.  I was laughing so hard I was crying.  I still laugh every time I think about it.  Judah. 

He also wanted to read every sign that we came across.  I think this one said.  "Watch out for rattle snakes.  No chupacabras allowed."

 After our strenuous hike, we needed to stop for some parking lot fry bread.  Yummers!

This was the sign for our RV park that night, isn't it cute!

After visiting Montezauma's castle and chowing down on fry bread, we hit the road once again.  Next stop...the Grand Canyon!

New Mexico

After Texas, we passed through New Mexico.  We went through border patrol, which the dogs found very interesting.

Usually, Judah sits in the front passenger seat, Sawyer sits in the rear captains chair, and I walk between them playing flight attendant.  For some reason, Judah wanted to sit on the couch during this trip.  It was awesome!  I got to sit in the front and enjoy the sights. 

Isn't she sweet?

We had found a stop over park in Deming, New Mexico using our Passport America app.  It looked nice, but I overlooked the fact that we had to drive five miles down a washboard dirt road to get there.  It was so bumpy that we had to drive 10 mph, so it took up about a half of an hour to get down.   We thought about turning around several times, but there was no place for it.  We were going so slow that the kids got to get out of their seats and sit in the dogs' spot.  When we finally got there we all agreed that it was totally worth the trouble.  

How beautiful is this?

And they even had a clothes line!  It was so windy out that our laundry dried in just a few minutes.

And we saw the biggest grasshoppers on the planet!

We hiked up one of the trails before we left.

Judah found lots of rocks.

Can you see the bounder way down there?

On the way down Judah really had to tinkle. 

We were only there for a short time, but it was one of the most beautiful places I have ever stayed .  It was soooo worth the dusty dirt road driving.

The rest of Texas

After New Braunfels, our next stop was the Grand Canyon.  That meant a lot of driving through the desert.  And a lot of stop over RV parks.  Our first was in Texas Hill Country right off the highway.  You had to check in at the Econo Lodge.  We laughed when we saw it, but the kids ended up having a great time playing in the dust, and we saw a lot of spectacular sights on their little nature walk.

Judah got out the binoculars to check out the local wildlife.  I saw a scorpion in the bathroom, so there was definitely wildlife to look for.

Checking the sky...

After all of that driving,we needed to shake out, so we had a dance party to the Ting Tings in the dead grass. 

Mark needed to do some more work on the engine (it is running fine now, btw) so I took the kids into "town" to keep them out of the way.  We found the local fire station and took a picture.  Doesn't he look excited about it?

The next day we checked out the facilities.  They were the creepiest thing I have ever seen.  You could totally film a horror movie in there.

Right?...

After being creeped out by the shower, we went on a nature walk.  It was so beautiful!  We saw deer turtles, and lots of ants. 

"Look mom, ants!"

The trail led to a river. 

Judah found some rocks for Lala.  Unfortunately they would have been a bit too pricey to send to the WB, but we did keep one to use as a door stop (which Sayer now uses to chuck across the RV). 

 
Then we hit the road again.

We stop at a lot of McDonalds, which is funny because at one time I vowed not to let my kids eat McDonalds.  We usually just get an ice cream cone, but that's probably made with beef fat, too.  They are great, though, because they have playlands and wi-fi, so the kids can play while I work.  Plus, they can make friends.

Like I've said before, living in a small space means that you have to clean up a lot more often.  Judah is all about that. He decided we needed to steam vac, but first he had to read the instructions.  Apparently, they were riveting. 

The next night we stayed in West Texas.  The RV park was nice, for being in the middle of a deserted town in the middle of the desert.  There was an abandoned train that Judah got to hang out on and wi-fi for me to work on.  There are not a lot of pictures for a few days because my students turned in their final papers and I had to grade, grade, grade and didn't leave the RV much.

Here is little Bean. The sweetest, fattest little angel, ever. In pictures, anyways.  In reality this child is a TERROR.  He heckles the dogs, dumps over their water, destroys everything Judah is trying to do, punches the computer, tears pages out of my Atlas, chucks things around the RV, pulls on the lamps until they come out of the wall, tries to release the parking break when we stop, screws with the switches and dials.  He is a terror.  I can't remember if this is a Saywer thing, or if this is just what 14 months feels like.  I almost let him run off with a pack of wild dogs here, but then who would I nurse to sleep 15 times a night?

Here we are driving through El Paso.  On the left you could see Mexico and the border fence.  It was pretty exciting.  Even more exciting, though, for me, was coming to the end of our Texas journey.  I was ready for a change. Minutes from this picture we were in New Mexico!